Michael Kownacky

We’re back at Covent Garden for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/24 3:00 p.m.) and the Royal Opera House production of Puccini’s “Turandot” featuring Sondra Raadvanovsky in the titular role and Seokjong Baek as Calaf.

We almost missed it, but we’re heading back to school, vicariously of course, through the musicals on this week’s Dress Circle (8/24 7:00 p.m.). We’ve programmed thirteen songs from a dozen shows, many of which are new to our “Back to School” programs.

We’re staying at the Royal Opera House for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/17 3:00 p.m.) and a double bill of operas by Leonard Bernstein, his 1952 work “Trouble in Tahiti” and the sequel, “A Quiet Place,” written 31 years later in 1983. The story was initially based on the troubled relationship of Bernstein’s parents.

We’re airing equal time on this week’s Dress Circle (8/17 7:00 p.m.) as we look at duets written for two male characters from the musicals.

It’s our third and final look at a treatment of Prevost’s tragic tale of Manon on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/10 3:00 p.m.) with the opera by Giacomo Puccini from the Teatro Regio in Turin. This production features Erika Grimaldi as Manon, Roberto Aronica as des Grieux, Alessandro Luongo as Lescaut, and Carlo Lepore as Gernote. This will be followed by the complete ballet score for "Cipollino" by Karen Khachaturian.

Thanks to John, a listener from Mercer County, we’re looking at a new theme for this week’s Dress Circle (8/10 7:00 p.m.) in a program we’ve titled “Duets for Her.” We’ve programed a baker’s dozen of duets for the ladies with some being sincere and others being sincerely snarky. (We prefer the snarky.)

Our second look at the story of Manon Lescaut continues from the Teatro Regio on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/3 3:00 p.m.) with Massanet’s treatment of the story by Antoine Prevost. In this one, Manon doesn’t die in the wilderness or desert of Louisiana, she dies of exhaustion on the road to Le Havre to be deported.

It’s been a very strange summer so far, but it’s moving along, and we’re going to be welcoming the final full month of summer by looking at some of the shows that opened in New York in August on this week’s Dress Circle (8/3 7:00 p.m.). As we do this, we’ll be looking at shows that span 138 years of musical history.

We have the first of three different Manons on this week’s Sunday Opera (7/27 3:00 p.m.) with Daniel Auber’s 1884 treatment of Abbe Prevost’s 1731 novel, “Manon Lescaut.” Auber’s work of the three we’ll be airing (the others by Massenet and Puccini) is probably the loosest adaptation of Prevost, but it still ends tragically for its titular character.

We’re remembering the career of songwriter Charles Strouse on this week’s Dress Circle (7/27 7:00 p.m.) through songs from his stage and screen career. Strouse is probably best known for his work with Lee Adams with whom he penned some of his most successful shows including “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Applause,” and “Golden Boy” although his longest-running musical, “Annie,” was written with Martin Charnin.